Hand controlled lift trucks or front loaders have a drawbar with which the industrial truck is steered. The steering of the drawbar takes place at the support for the pivotable drive wheel of the materials handling truck. At the free end a drawbar head is provided which has a plurality of actuation members for operating the industrial truck. Thus for example drive switches are provided, actuation elements for the lifting and lowering operation and the horn. It is known from EP 0 751 060 to attach grips on both sides of a horn, which is arranged in the extension of the drawbar handle, and to attach them to both sides of the horn via a protective bracket. The connection is made via arm sections extending approximately parallel to the horn and via carrier sections which in turn extend approximately parallel to the grips. It is further known from the disclosed prior art, to arrange a drive switch grip respectively between a grip and the horn which can be twisted with the thumbs about an axis which approximately coincides with the axis of the grip. Finally, it is also known from the disclosed publications, to attach to the carrier section a row of control buttons for the lifting and lowering operation, which are actuated by finger pressure when the hand simultaneously grasps the grip.
It is known from EP 1016569 A1 to attach a key pad to the lower face of the drawbar head, via which the operator can insert the authorisation code.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,259 to make the grips of the drawbar head rotatable and to use them for drive control. It is further known to provide the grips with paddle-shaped shoulders in the vicinity of the arm sections, which protrude into the grip area and which can be actuated by the thumbs or a finger when the hand grips the arm section at the side.
It is known that a drawbar of the disclosed type can be pivoted in a large angle between an approximately upright position and a fully lowered position, to be able to maneuver the vehicle in the widest variety of spatial conditions. In the known drawbar embodiments, the control elements of the drawbar head can only be reached with difficulty in the folded up position of the drawbar and generally cannot be observed which makes the operation more difficult. The control elements are generally predominantly round or square in their contour shape and therefore constructed in such a shape that they do not guarantee optimal accessibility of the hand grasping the drawbar head in every position.